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Asia-Pacific Leadership and Policy Dialogue for Women’s and Children’s Health

7-9 NOVEMBER 2012 | MANILA, PHLIPPINES

The Manila Declaration

Accelerating progress for women's and children's health in Asia and the Pacific

As representatives of governments, civil society, private sector, multilateral organizations and development cooperation agencies, we will work together to accelerate progress in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health services as a foundation for universal access to quality healthcare in Asia and the Pacific. We will hold ourselves accountable for our shared commitments to the Millennium Development Goals, underpinned by international human rights agreements and guided by the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health.

To this end we will:

Invest and act

Promote the development of national costed action plans at relevant administrative levels to ensure access to quality reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent healthcare. Invest and act more effectively and equitably by: increasing domestic funding, international cooperation and innovative financing; promoting investment strategies in the private sector to create both business and social value; introducing appropriate policies and programs to protect individuals and families against catastrophic health expenditure and promoting demand for care by poor and disadvantaged groups; improving the efficiency and effectiveness of health spending and implementation through better planning, budgeting, management and monitoring; strengthening health and information systems; and ensuring access to affordable essential, life-saving health commodities, such as for family planning and newborn health. Build human resource capacities to deliver affordable, quality care through public and private providers and develop regulatory frameworks for the same.

Share and learn

Create and expand opportunities for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue – regional, national and sub-national - to share experiences in implementing and scaling up interventions and innovations and addressing the challenges faced, including inequities. Strengthen national and regional knowledge hubs and networks in Asia and the Pacific to provide robust and timely evidence to support policies and programmes, and enhance regional advocacy capacity by building on national advocacy coalitions.

Integrate and innovate

Adopt holistic and integrated approaches to addressing the health, social and environmental determinants of women’s and children’s health and well-being. Strengthen cross-sectoral linkages and collective action where actors from different industries and sectors align and coordinate efforts around related issues and goals across health, nutrition, education, women’s empowerment, water, sanitation, transportation, poverty reduction and sustainable development. Use innovations in financing, services and accountability, including in information and communication technologies, to address health systems challenges and achieve scalable, sustainable solutions for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health.

Promote accountability and rights

Implement the recommendations of the Commission on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health, including to improve civil registration, assess the coverage of quality healthcare, and conduct multi-stakeholder reviews to track resources and results, for instance by taking forward Countdown to 2015 processes in countries. Strengthen linkages with monitoring of human rights treaties including the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, and of the Programme of Action agreed at the International Conference on Population and Development. Recognize the role of parliamentarians, legislative mechanisms, civil society and the media in promoting accountability for women’s and children’s health.

Through these actions we will ensure that women and children are enabled to realize their right to the highest attainable standard of health in the years to 2015 and beyond

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The Partnership (PMNCH)

joins the reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health communities into an alliance of members, across seven constituencies. Working together, our goal is a world in which all women, newborns, children and adolescents not only are healthy, but thrive.